Norman Yakeleya

Just on the one there, I just left off and I haven’t yet talked to the Minister about this in terms of when they have packages for home units in the communities. I wanted to ask the Minister, has he checked into this issue? I don’t know if it has come to his office yet in terms of some of the units that have missing supplies. It takes them a bit to get the supplies flown into my region where everything is flown in this time of year. Now the winter road is open so they will probably be driving. However, when the packages are there, they are going to build a unit and sometimes they open the...

Mr. Chair, could I then dare say that if these issues are not resolved in terms of the land tenure issues for housing that’s allocated for a community and they’re still working on a land issue here, that this community, any communities, you know, would they lose their unit? Would it go to another community outside the region, within the region because the units are there? I think sometimes that’s under the impression of the leadership, that if we don’t get this unit, and because we know the urgency and the need for housing, that would make a, what do they call it, a time compressor...

So it’s going to be part of the operations in terms of these mortgage collection specialists. Now these mortgage collection specialists, are they going to be in the region or is that going to be coming out of the headquarters to take care of the regions and the communities?

With the federal funding, the one the Minister made a reference to, is this going to be one year or is this ongoing? Is it going to increase sometime in terms of the ongoing positions for the corporation?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have comments on the general observation of the Housing Corporation. I was reading the Minister’s comments to the House here. Probably somewhere down the line I will ask the Minister in terms of the federal funding for the housing programs in the Northwest Territories. I know there is a decrease every year. I believe the Minister at one time, I must have forgot in terms him stating the amount that the federal government is decreasing revenue towards our housing in the Northwest Territories. So far, I understand that there is $43 million for 2010-11 for housing...

Mr. Chair, just more of a comment here in terms of the programs that are under this budget here in terms of the homeownership entry level program. I just like to give a comment to the Housing here in terms of these programs. The STEP program, the HELP program and the other programs, they offer the PATH program, the CARE program. I think that’s probably one of the best written up programs I’ve read. I had the opportunity to read the STEP program. It’s dynamite stuff that’s there that should be going to the communities. Hopefully, it will be somehow, when we have aboriginal peoples taking these...

With regard to the question I am going to ask the Minister, this person does not qualify for low cost housing because their income is $5,000 too much. They probably won’t get a low cost housing unit. So this person has to go from pay cheque to pay cheque, paying $1,700 a month for rent, fuel is about $300 -- probably a little more in the small, isolated communities -- power is about $200, water is about $100, phone is about $40 and food and all that. How can we help a person like this, a mother of three daughters, with the example of low cost housing units?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Minister in terms of the announcement of increasing the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories. However, the next day, Mr. Speaker, I had a question from a single mother of three. She has young daughters. She was reading the press release and had some concerns. They wanted to ask the question in terms of the wage increasing, the cost of living increasing. Are the income thresholds going to increase with the GNWT programs that he administers?

Mr. Speaker, that’s a very disturbing answer from the Minister in terms of banning caribou. This is right down the Northwest Territories. We certainly have agreements that speak to the authority and the management of caribou. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, through his wisdom, in terms of we passed a motion to consult. How come he didn’t come to us to talk about we want to have this discussion and pose the questions to the Supreme Court of Canada? I never had him once come to us and ask us. You are putting a question that is going to be fighting our people. How come he didn’t come to...

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of Justice some questions in regard to a tabled document he had on February 8, in terms of he’s going to ask the Supreme Court of Canada some questions. I’m not too clear in terms of what this Minister is asking, because in the tabled document he indicated the Bathurst caribou herd and later on in the document he talked about the barren-ground caribou in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask for clarification from the Minister.